Rare Koala With Different Colored Eyes Steals the Hearts of Australian Vets
— -- A rare koala with two different-colored eyes has stolen the hearts of Australian zookeepers and the internet.
The Australia Zoo Wildlife Hospital in Queensland announced on their website that they recently took in an injured marsupial patient they presumed had been struck by a car.
The vets quickly noticed that the koala, named "Bowie," had two strikingly different colored eyes -- one brown and the other bright blue.
The wildlife hospital said this was because of a rare genetic condition called "heterochromia," in a statement on their website.
Dr. Sharon Griffiths, Bowie's vet at the zoo wildlife hospital, also said that the koala's differing eye colors have no affect on her vision.
She added that Bowie is quite a special koala, not just because of her eyes. "Apart from being extremely lucky in avoiding injury on the road, she's also incredibly unique as heterochromia isn't a common occurrence in koalas; it's more often found in domestic mammal species such as dogs and cats."
The zoo wildlife hospital said the goal is eventually to release Bowie back into the wild, adding that Australia's koalas are classified as vulnerable, and urged people who see injured koalas to call the hospital's wildlife emergency hotline.
